Endings and Beginnings

Every year, in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, I spend several hours composing a personal year in review for myself. I learned of a format through Marie Forleo that I like. These are the three sets of questions I ask myself:

What did I do create, or experience this year that I’m really, really proud of? What big or little things did I make happen this year? What did I create? What did I experience? What did I do that I’m really proud of?

What mistakes did I make that taught me something? What lessons did I learn that I can leverage? What are some of the things that didn’t go so well? How can I do better next time? How can I use this to grow into a better and wiser person?

What am I willing to let go of? What are the projects, goals and things that have been hanging around my To Do list for years that I never get around to? What can I get out of or release myself from? What can I just drop? What do I have hanging around that is no longer aligned with who I am now, what I hope to achieve in the future, or where I want to go? What resentments, angers, and hurts am I holding onto? What kind of guilt, shame, or embarrassment am I not willing to forgive? What stories am I telling myself that are no longer serving me?

I look forward to this exercise every year. I like to read what I've written in years past, and see my own growth. I like creating new ambitions.

One of my bigger take-aways this year is that ... duh ... I really am an artist.

I completed 64 projects last year. That works out to a completed project every six days! And if you count each individual project in the multi-item projects like Valentines, ornaments, Christmas cards, etc., I made a total of nearly 140 items which works out to about two completed projects per week!!!

Another happy realization is that this year I completed at least a dozen UFOs, WISPs, and PILLs. What are those?

UnFinished Objects (things that were started years ago and not completed)

Works In Slow Progress (things that were started and I pick at a little bit over months)

Projects In Long Lines (ideas that have been floating around, many with the components gathered and waiting in project bags, but hadn't been started yet).

That realization made me positively giddy. It feels so good to bring some of these creative concepts into being.

Another stand-out thing that happened this year is that I found my "tribe." I went on a retreat last Spring and met many other like-minded women. I've stayed in touch with the group and have gotten to know a few choice people through Facebook.

Likewise, I completed The Artist's Way course and found kindred spirits in Facebook groups dedicated to that framework, too.

I'm also proud of myself that I've only missed a dozen blog posts this year. I've been very consistent about posting something every day. It's my version of a daily scrapbook, and in looking back over the year, I have lots of memories to savor.

As for lessons learned the hard way, I see that I'm getting better and better about setting personal boundaries. Go me!

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A second part of my exercise is to pick goals.

Of my 18 Goals in 2018, I completed all of them. The two long-term multi-year goals will continue on into next year.

Here are my 19 Goals in 2019:

Stitchery
1. to 6.

Do the finishing work on six of the needlework pieces that are stitched but not ready for display. I have at least a dozen to choose from.


One Shot Projects

 7. Learn to use my pom pom makers

 8. Go on a Celebrate Your Life retreat
 9. Create a watermark for my photos
10. Finish setting up the photo studio in my basement
11. Watch the DVD about Lake Missoula
12. Learn my Enneagram

Medium Length Projects
13. Reach a designated goal weight by my February doctor’s appointment
14. Paint and add privacy fencing on our dog kennel/storage space
15. Purge and organize storage shelves in exercise room
16. Use up my tea stash

Long Term Projects

17. Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects
18. Blog at least 10 of my Ladies of the Evening beaded handbag collection (mend as needed)

Long Term Courses
19. Finish at least one of six courses/classes on my list. I'm leaning toward a course on basic design principles.

I do have 32 alternate goals that I can swap out for any of these 19 if circumstances dictate.

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The final part of my exercise is to pick a Word of the Year.

For 2019, my word is whittle

Dale and I are starting the downsizing journey. After living in our home for 25+ years, there will be a lot of downsizing to do. We started this year. We're hoping to step up our game in 2019. But I'm determined to keep from making it a chore. I'm certain there is a way to bring whimsy to the process, to be creative in how we go about releasing objects, to make it fun. To whittle down our possessions.

We also want to continue to whittle down our weight. Whittle down our A1c score. Whittle down our anxieties.

I like the word whittle. It makes the processes bite-sized. Do things a little at a time.

Whittle a little.

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Now my lists are made. My intentions are clear.

Time to get this New Year's Eve party started! We're having quite a shebang:

A 3D movie here at home
Popcorn
Little smokies
Chex mix
A jigsaw puzzle
And blowing bubbles at midnight

HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS!

2018 Holiday Card

This year I made just over 30 cards to send out before Christmas. I decided on a winter theme with a color pallet of blue, purple, and silver.

I started by embossing the front of the cardstock with this swirly design. I thought it gave the illusion of a snowstorm.

Next I added some washi tape with a triangular design. I put it at an angle across the bottom of the card. Beneath it I added a 3-D gem snowflake sticker.

I used three triangles of the same size, but cut from different paper for the trees. The harlequin tree was first, glued flat to the cardstock. It was topped with a silver star sticker.

The purple tree with raised silver "ornaments" was next, slightly overlapping the first tree. Two additional 3-D gem snowflake stickers were placed in the top right corner of the card.

The third tree was cut from blue cardstock, rather than paper. The cardstock was already embossed with stars. This tree is adhered to the cardstock with foam adhesive squares. This raises the tree off the background for a 3-D effect. I added a "garland" of gem star stickers, extending the line, visually, with the "ornaments" of the purple tree.

We kept the message on the inside of the card simple, with blue print on a light purple parchment cardstock. The inside message was composed in MS Word. I quite like the flourishes and lines above and below the greeting.

The final touch was to add my signature to the back of the card.

I even designed the return address labels this year.

After days of design starts, stops, and redesign, I'm tickled pink with the final result.

Baby Doll

This morning Dale was able to deliver our Christmas gifts to Julie's family in Moscow, Idaho. Due to my cold, I needed to stay home. But I got to watch all the excitement of opening gifts via Skype.

One special Grandma Mimi-to-Melody present was a special little baby doll. It's Melody's first. Her little sister is due in just a few months. So now Melody can get a little practice with a baby before her mommy has one in her arms.

Melody took her baby doll from the box and immediately held her and fed her with a bottle. It was the sweetest thing ever to observe!

Dale was able to take this beautiful photo of the moment.

The Giving Tree

I'm going through my 2018 photos this week and ran across this gem that I took last Spring. This is my Giving Tree, taken from an unusual angle that can only be seen when the Spokane River's water is running low and I can walk along the rocky shore. I'd love to be a forest gnome, playing hide and seek among its roots.

Over the years, I've taken oodles of photos of my Giving Tree. This composite even was chosen to be one of the year's best a few years ago on a national photo website:

Tidying Up

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is one of my favorites. Dale and I are both in "vacation mode." That doesn't mean we're travelling. We usually don't. But it does mean we don't have to do normal tasks and can mess around a lot. A time to recharge.

For me, I also like to do a personal year in review, set some goals for the following year, and tidy up things that have gotten way out of control -- like my digital photos that need to be filed and my email In Box.

I've got a terrible cold right now, so sitting at the computer going through email and watching videos I've "saved for later" and listening to saved podcast episodes was just the right speed for me today. I can watch and sneeze and listen and wipe my tearing eyes and read and sneeze some more. The hours have flown by.

It's the end of the day, and my In Box is looking great! All that's left are three coupons I might use, a list of TED talks I might watch, and a head's-up from Dale about the Enneagram.

Satisfying.

Merry Christmas!

My Ugly Christmas Sweater, in all it's glory.

On Christmas day, my sweet, well-meaning mother-in-law kept saying how nice my sweater was. I'm not convinced that she understood my sweater was supposed to be a joke. Then she told me she has a Christmas sweater that was HER mother's that she will give me if I like it. Oh, dear. Her mother was tiny. It would never fit. So .... hmmmm .... now what do I do?

Merry Christmas!


photo by Dale

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Here's a fun little project I've been meaning to do for several years. Make an Ugly Christmas Sweater! I started with a men's red sweatshirt, a browse through Pinterest, and boxes of lace and craft felt. Add in some plants and sequins and buttons and ribbon and pom poms and rick rack and beads and stickers and a hot glue gun ... well, this is what you get. I'll let the pictures speak (loudly) for themselves.

Overview

The tree

Tree topper

Mr. Snowman

Ready for his close up

The Gingerbread Gal

And her close up

The foliage collar

The sleeves

All tied up with a bow

Merry Christmas to all my friends and readers!

Baking Day

It was cookie baking day in the Davaz household today. Three kinds of brown cookies, it seems. They may not look like much, but they each taste uniquely delectable.

In the morning, Jeanne and I made some oatmeal cookies. I've been craving these for weeks!

In the afternoon, I turned to making Rice Krispies treats. Ever since the dessert turkey we made at Thanksgiving, I've been eye-balling the left-over cereal.

Today I bought some Fireside marshmallows ... my favorite kind. They have a distinctly good flavor. You'd think all marshmallows taste the same, but no! These are particularly tasty.

And in the evening, I made our family favorite, pizzelles. These Italian treats always remind me of my parents, my Great Aunt Jay, and cousin Mary Ellen.

Breaking news ... I didn't burn a single one! I love the anise flavor of these.

Elf on a ... Hearth

and his gnome friends

Waiting for Santa

Thread Bear and Jingle

Cozy under the tree

If you pressed Jingle's tummy, he used to sing.

Theeeeerrreeee They Go!

The elves and spiders are at it again.

Under the Tree

For years, our teddy bears had a Christmas picnic on the front porch at our cafe table. This year, we invited them inside. That's Thread Bear in the middle, holding court.

Next Christmas, he'll likely be in Moscow, snuggling up to our new granddaughter.

Primitive Angel Wreath

I'm in the midst of decorating for Christmas. This little angel has been a part of our family for nearly 30 years.

But it might just be time for her to fly to a new home.

Sneak Peek

I started putting this year's Christmas cards together this weekend. Here's a bit of the scene. I'll share the entire card after they're mailed.

A Christmas Wish

2018 Gingerbread Scene

Jeanne came by for a Mom/Jeanne joint birthday project. We both enjoy all the details that go into making a gingerbread house and its surroundings. We spent most of one day together reveling in the creation.

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We started with a basic gingerbread house kit. It comes with all the gingerbread pieces, a few packets of candies, a bag of icing, a plastic tray to build the house on, and cardboard cutouts of the Peanuts characters.

Jeanne and I built a corrugated cardboard box to fit inside the house giving the gingerbread some extra structural integrity. We actually used hot glue to attach many of the gingerbread pieces, then used the icing as decoration, rather than as the glue that holds the house together. We used a double thick piece of foam core as the base of the scene.

Once the basic house was built and decorated, we placed it on the foam core and planned out our scene. We have some trees and snowmen that we utilize every year, so they needed a place to go. We decided to add a porch to the front of the house, and a fire pit out in the yard. Then we let our imaginations run wild.

The front of the house is festooned with lights along the gable and a sugar jelly wreath with a bow made from white Twizzlers. The candy cane stripe around the door and the red window panes are also made of Twizzlers. There are green sugar jelly bushes all around the house. The fence surrounding the porch is made of candy canes with larger candy ball finials. I like how it looks like Woodstock just finished shoveling the walkway to the door and is on his way back inside.

The windows are lit with colorful small candy balls. The yellow bells are also sugar jelly, with yellow candy ball clappers and a real satin ribbon bow. The roof of the house has a red sugar jelly star at the front gable. The roof tiles are made of Wheat Chex cereal. There are more sugar balls and oblong sugar candies along the ridgepole. The bricks on the chimney are made from tiny strips of Twizzlers. All parts of the roof are held together with icing.

The back of the house is simpler because it will be against a wall when the gingerbread house is on display. But we did outline the windows and door with green Twizzler strips while the panes are delineated with red Twizzler strips. The door is covered with pink flat candy rounds with a larger purple candy ball for a handle. The gable is outline with more sugar ball lights. The final touch is another sugar jelly wreath, this time with a red bow made of Twizzlers.

A path of icing leads to the fire pit on the right side of the house. A forest of trees stand behind the singers, complete with gold button stars on top. The base of each tree is supported with peppermint rounds.

Most of the Peanuts clan is enjoying the fire and singing carols ... well, all singing except Snoopy. He has other Christmas treats on his mind.

The local snowfolk have stopped by to find out what to make of the singing. One seems to want to join in, ringing the bell on his hat to the beat of the music. The other? Not quite sure what to make of all the racket, and a little fearful that, if he gets too close, he'll melt in the warmth of the fire.

I'm particularly proud of the texture in the snow. It has a base of icing. Then we added small white sugar balls and white flat candy rounds to make it look like some graupel fell after the last snowfall. The fire pit is made of broken segments of the red sugar jelly wreaths, outlined in the large red and green sugar balls. Jeanne created the fire from red, yellow, and orange sugar jelly candies.

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Snoopy is reveling in his cookie as he listens to his friends sing in the warmth of the firelight. The pup knows how to party!

I thoroughly enjoyed my day with my birthday buddy. It was a great way for just the two of us to have special time for our joint birthday.

Throwback Thursday - 2003 (Part 1)

If it's Thursday, it time to look back on projects from long ago. This is what I made in January and February of 2003.


Arctic Rose

This is the last in the series of ornament designs I picked up while in Alaska. This is stitched on a scrap of Fiddler's Cloth and finished as a "pillow" ornament, using a picot edge satin ribbon for the hanger. Having these ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree each year is a great way to remember the 10th wedding anniversary Dale and I celebrated in Alaska.

Giraffe

Here's a giraffe to add to my stitched collection. I love his sweet expression and the way his little round body sits on his short little legs. This is part of by X-Calibre Designs "Little Ones" collection, which is geared toward beginner stitchers. The inexpensive kits came with with fabric, needle, threads and a large print chart.

I framed this sweet guy in a 5" embroidery hoop that I'd painted gold. I added the black bow at the top because most of my giraffe stitcheries are either stitched on black fabric, or have a black mat. I wanted to carry over a touch of black in the finishing work on this piece, too, to fit into the collection.

Cosmo-Kitty

Cosmo-Kitty was designed by my oldest daughter, Jeanne. At the time, she liked to design cross-stitch more than she liked to stitch. She called me her model stitcher. This was the third of her designs I stitched.

Thank You Note

My brother Mark surprised me by sending me a nice cross-stitch book called The Art of William Morris in Cross Stitch by Barbara Hammet. It arrived on a day when I needed a pick-me-up, and I so appreciated his thoughfulness.

The designs in the book are simplified and stylized from the original embroideries. The book has very nice photos of Morris' original works, and then color charts of Hammet's interpretations. Among the many birds, florals and fruits is a lovely capital letter alphabet called the Kelmscott Alphabet. I stitched the letter "C" for my brother (the initial of his last name).

The entire design is stitched using DMC #8 perle coton, in navy blue #823. 

Welcome to the World Magnet

I stitched this kit for our new neighbors who had a baby boy. I added this magnet to a gift basket I put together for their baby.

I had great fun shopping for the little guy. The basket included a hooded towel with matching washcloth, four receiving blankets, three pair of socks, some shampoo and bathing goodies, and a rubber duck that lets you know if the bath water is too hot or not. What fun!